This photo provided on Tuesday by the Syrian anti-government activist group Edlib Media Center, that is consistent with independent AP reporting, shows a man carrying a child following a suspected chemical attack, at a makeshift hospital in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, northern Idlib province, Syria. The suspected chemical attack killed dozens of people on Tuesday, Syrian opposition activists said, describing the attack as among the worst in the country’s six-year civil war.

BEIRUT >> A Syrian monitoring group says the death toll from a suspected chemical attack on a northern town the previous day has now increased to 72 as activists reported renewed airstrikes on the town hit in the harrowing assault.

Ahmed al-Sheikho, of the Idlib Civil Defense team, says the Wednesday airstrikes hit near where the suspected chemical attack occurred in the town of Khan Sheikhoun.

He says the strikes did not cause any casualties because the area had been evacuated following Tuesday’s attack.

The U.N. Security Council is to hold an emergency meeting Wednesday on that attack, which activists say was one of the worst in the country’s civil war.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 20 children and 17 women are among the 72 killed.

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